Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Rs 20 lakh crore economic package to make India self-reliant and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for announcing the first set of measures to achieve it, AEPC chairman A Sakthivel said the decisions will leave more money in the hands of people and companies and this will spur economic growth and boost the country’s ability to fight COVID19.
Welcoming the FM’s announcements related to MSMEs, Sakthivel said, “The facility of Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs, will help many businesses get over the liquidity crunch and lack of working capital due to disruptions brought in by the pandemic and resultant lockdown.”
The chairman particularly thanked the Finance Minister for widening the definition of MSMEs in terms of investment and turnover, as this will enable many of the better doing MSMEs to continue taking benefit of schemes meant for MSMEs.
Sakthivel also said, “We sincerely welcome the decision to disallow global tenders by the government for up to Rs 200 crore. This will boost the local industries who otherwise found it difficult to compete with foreign competitors and it will further help in realizing the PM’s dream of making self-reliant India.”
Other measures to improve the liquidity in the economy like Rs 30,000 crore liquidity facility for NBFCs/HCs/MFIs, Rs 90,000 crore liquidity injection for power discoms and increasing money in the hands of the people through Rs 50,000 crore liquidity via TDS and TCS reductions will go a long way in getting the economy back on tracks, he said.
Sakthivel, however, requested the government to extend the benefit under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) of payment of 12% of employer and 12% employee contributions towards EPF accounts, which is extended by another three months till August 2020, to cover all the Apparel Exporting Units as they are highly labour intensive with a huge women work-force.
“The new definition of MSME’s on the basis of the revised MSME classification is a very welcome step. However, it is strongly urged that the definition for Apparel exporting units may kindly be changed to allow all such units having a turnover of Rs 250 crore be defined as an MSME Unit irrespective of their investment in Plant and Machinery as this is a long-standing demand of our Industry, and would definitely assist in scaling up this sector. In light of the weakening of the Rupee most of the small exporters have also already crossed this figure,” Sakthivel added.
Further, the chairman said that the Council is looking forward to the next tranche of the package where we are confident that you will address the requests of the Apparel Exporting Industry, for which we shall remain obliged.